Orpheus Sector
The Orpheus Sector was famed Sector Imperialis only recently revoked by orders of the High Lords of Terra, following its devastation in the still ongoing Orphean War. The planets of the Orpheus Sector are counted amongst the oldest celestial bodies within the galaxy, planets whose soil until recently hid a dark secret. Yet, for four millennia, the Orpheus Sector has been a powerhouse of Imperial might, a stronghold at the outer borders of the Imperium of Mankind. Located in the Dark Marches region of the Segmentum Tempestus and boasting its own warfleet and proud history, the Orpheus Sector was only established in M.36 following the famed Dark Marches Crusade. Although its days of glory long rest in the past, the Orpheus Sector has defiantly stood on the Imperium’s frontier despite being plagued by several strange warp phenomena, xenos raids and Chaos-led uprisings. However, everything changed when an old menace in form of the Maynark Dynasty awoke. Belonging to the vile breed of Xenos known as Necrons to the Emperor’s Holy Inquisition, this foe would lay waste the entire sector in a few short months, ravaging its worlds and conducting genocidal campaigns of extermination on planetary scales. With so many arrayed to combat the threat of the Tyranids in the Ultima Segmentum, the Imperium was left ill-prepared for the emergence of this new threat on its southern border and was left with no other choice than to abandon the sector and eventually reclaim it when enough troops and vessel could be gathered to launch a proper Imperial Crusade. History Contrary to many of the Imperium’s domains, which have existed for the last ten millennia, the existence of the Orpheus Sector as a fully recognized Sector Imperialis only dates back to the last century of M36. Like others regions in the galaxy, the planets of what would eventually become the Orpheus Sector were however colonized by humanity during its first galactic expansion in what is referred today as the Dark Age of Technology. Contact with the wider Imperium was also established during the Great Crusade as somewhen between 570 and 750.M30 the legendary Rogue Trader Lady Arica Orpheus ventured further than the Mandragoran Stars into the Sector that would eventually bear her name. Rogue Traders usually function as scouting elements for far larger and military-minded fleets, and in this the voyages of Lady Arica were no exception. Soon expeditionary forces of the Great Crusade followed in Lady Orpheus’ wake, bound on reestablishing contact with those few scattered human civilisations that had survived the Long Night and the baleful attention of xenos raiders. Some of these races had successfully established their own pocket empires and would need to be exterminated but for the most part the Dark Marches as they were then still called were a barren and desolate streak of galaxy. The vast majority of these worlds were tremendously old, incapable of sustaining human or xenos life, but many bore the tell-tale signs of former biospheres and indeed unknown civilisations for the surviving records of the Lady’s later voyage - now safely guarded within the Great Covenant Navis Temple on Holy Terra - indicate many findings of gargantuan xenos ruins. It was also at this time that the world of Amarah Prime was colonized by Lady Orpheus’ fleet, acting both as a supply point and safe haven for her own later voyages and the forces of the Great Crusade tasked with pacifying the region. It is worthy to note that even in this distant time, Imperial forces suffered from frequent raids from the Dark Eldar which have probably been preying on the worlds of the Dark Marches Region for a long time. As Lady Arica ventured further and further to the galactic border, she finally reached the turbulent regions known as the Veiled Region which proved too dangerous to cross, thus marking the outer limit of her voyages. While the Rogue Trader’s work was now completed, the work of the Imperial Army and Legiones Astartes was not. Unfortunately the Imperium would then descend into a time of chaos and anarchy known as the Age of Darkness that followed the Horus Heresy. The Horus Heresy While the Imperium is torn apart by the civil war that followed the Warmaster’s betrayal, the Orpheus Sector is largely abandoned to its fate, neither Loyalists nor Traitors showing much interest in this far-flung region of space. Those xenos domains not yet eradicated by the forces of the Great Crusade surged forward and the Dark Marches quickly became a lawless borderland where renegades and xenos corsairs roamed freely. Only the outpost on Amarah Prime continues to enjoy some sort of stability, which however would not last indefinitely. Somewhere during the first century of the 31st Millennium, a traitor warlord by the name of Dynat Mal -- originally belonging to the Alpha Legion -- elected the Dark Marches as a safe haven to escape the press of those armies loyal to the Emperor which had by now launched a new crusade known as the Great Scouring. Having gathered a thousand strong coterie of renegades, heretics and diabolists around him, Dynat Mal's warband took the name of "The Shadowed Ones" and destroyed the outpost on Amarah, plundering its stores and stockpiles after having massacred the outpost’s entire population. Several punitive expeditions launched by the reemerging Imperium are destroyed through the use of guerilla tactics and the use of baleful powers. With the destruction of the outpost on Amarah, any Imperial claim to the region is effectively severed. Yet the Imperium would not so easily let a known enemy roam freely and especially the Raven Guard Chapter still sought to avenge the deaths of their fellow Legionaries during the Battle of Lyx, for which Dynat Mal was responsible. In the 170’s of M32, the Raven Guard dispatched a sizeable taskforce under Captain Kallengier to bring Dynat "Crowbane" Mal to justice. Yet, despite intensive researches the Alpha Legion still eluded the vengeful Raven Guard until the taskforces reaches the heart of the Orpheus Sector. There, in the deep jungles of the world of Apollyon the discovered the broken hull of a Strike Cruiser quickly identified as the Occam’s Razor, known to have belonged to the XXth Legion’s fleet. While the Strike Cruiser’s demise could not be ascertained for sure, the surroundings of the broken strike cruiser were still more unsettling: like a grim tombstone or grave marker, the Occam’s Razor stood over a valley filled with the bones of the dead. The corpses mostly belonged to mutated humans but also to the Eldar, to the Khrave and to several unidentified xenos forms. Most disturbing were however the sundered warplates of the Legiones Astartes which not only bore the colors of the Alpha Legion, but also those of the White Scars and the Iron Hands. Who had perpetuated this massacre remained unclear and the Raven Guard did not linger long for their Librarians’ visions told of an impending doom should they stay too long. Their vengeance denied, the Raven Guard departed the baleful valley, their questions unanswered. For the millenia that followed, the Dark Marches were utterly neglected by Imperial authorities and left to fight for themselves. Very few facts can be verified for what indeed occurred in this region as the Segmentum Tempestus is frequently isolated by powerful Warp storms and other stellar phenomena. It is only in the wake of the Age of Apostasy that the eye of the Imperium rested again on those worlds that would soon become the Orpheus Sector. The Rising Storm and the Birth of the Orpheus Sector Whereas other regions of the Imperium were weakened by the events of the 35th and 36th Millennium, the Segmentum Tempestus knew a period of stability. The heavy Warp Storms that had given the Segmentum its name were slowly abating and with the end of Goge Vandire’s Reign of Blood and the death of the usurper, the Imperium turned its eyes to the Dark Marches Region. With the approval of the High Lords of Terra, the Segmentum authorities declared a series of interlinked campaigns and crusades to rid themselves of xenos plagues and other menaces, but also fortify the Imperium’s borders. It would take some time before the Imperium ventured in those regions that had been left abandonned since the Horus Heresy-era, but following the launch of the Dark Marches Crusade, the Dark Marches Region became the primary focus of the Imperium’s expansionist efforts. Athough the Crusade would take nearly a century and half to reach its conclusion, the Dark Marches Crusade was a great victory, culminating with the formal creation of the Leyak, Hazak and Eurydice Sectors alongside the famed Orpheus Sector. This name was both an hommage to the early Rogue Trader, Lady Arica Orpheus which had explored this wold region of space several millennia before as the true consecration of the crusade’s mastermind, Lord Tempestus Hal Orpheus which became the Sector’s first appointed Governor. Amarah, the former outpost was rebuilt and soon became the Sector’s new capital where the old Lord Tempestus, barely alive thanks to the ministrations of his very personal entourage of Mechanicum savants built his palace. Yet, at its beginnings the Orpheus Sector remained a frontier realm of the Imperium, a realm with no august name to draw settlers to it and where life was particularly harsh and dangerous. The unhabited system of Myre was given over to the Adeptus Mechanicus which soon began to exploit the system’s riches and thus laid the foundation-stone of he Sectors trade-routes. Other worlds were given over to victorious regiments of the Imperial Guard that had participated in the Dark Marches Crusade, claiming by Rite of Conquest what they had fought and often bled for. However, apart from zealous pilgrims and fratris militaris, few other colonist followed. This the High Lords would not tolerate and soon entire planetary population were placed under the Edict of Transmission to rally the Orpheus Sector and make it their new home. Most notoriously, millions of citizens were brought in from the overcrowded Hive Worlds of the Warre and Uhulis-Sector and those survivors and refugees from distant worlds ravaged by war, depleted of natural ressources or habitable biosphere were soon rerouted to colonize the Orpheus Sector and its neighbours. Many a colonization fleet vanished on its perillous travel through the Warp, but many also reached their goal. These colonist would then form the true population of the Orpheus Sector. To better protect the rapidly expanding trading-routes the Sector was rapidly gifted with the right to form its own warfleet, Battlefleet Orpheus whose mighty flagship, the Apocalypse-class Battleship Arica Dominus had once carried Lord Tempestus Hal Orpheus into battle. The Battlefleet soon took the Lantern of Orpheus as its official symbol, a design believed to have been derived from the personal heraldry of Lady Arica Orpheus in whose honour the Arica Dominus had been named. For more than an entire millennia, the Orpheus Sector knew nothing but prosperity, an era that is now seen as something akin of a first Golden Age. With the Sector’s first millenial anniversary close at hand, the entire Sector rejoiced, ordinate, commoner and noble celebrating the good fortune of the ever-growing Sector which had quickly risen into prominence amongst the other sectors of the Segmentum Tempestus. As part of the ceremonies of this most notable event, the preserved corpse of Hal Orpheus, now regarded as the spiritual father and founder of the Orpheus Sector is born upon the Arica Dominus to complete a tour of the Sector’s most influential worlds. Many holy miracles and visions are told and reported to have ocurred in the wake of the relic-corpse passage. Yet, in a relatively short period of time, the atmosphere of optimism and religious zeal of the Orpheus Millenial is replaced by one of wary caution. When in 976.M37 all contact was lost with the neighboring Leyak-Sector, the High Lords of Terra declared several edicts that would see the Orpheus Sector gear up for war. The Sector’s wealthiest worlds began to fortify themselves, securing their domains by raising new regiments and investing a large portion of their wealth and industrial output into orbital defence platforms. Battlefleet Orpheus also greatly benefited form this new evolution, both in terms of manpower and ships as the ever more paranoid Sector authorities diverted growing resources to their own defences. By Imperial Edict several Frontier Worlds of the Sector were declared Perdita and barred from trespassing under pain of death, but the huge expenditures in military build-up ultimately contributed to destabilize the system. While military speaking the Sector continued to build up its power, the heavy tithes imposed to finance this rise in power bred considerable social discontent and the Adeptus Arbites and the Ordo Hereticus are frequently called upon to conduct social purges or violently reprimand outburst of anti-Imperial nature. Cultic activities steadily rises but the first true test of the Sector’s defences did not come from the Outer Darkness or as feared thus far from the silent Leyak-Sector but from within. The Time of Woes While the Orphean Admiralty focussed on surveying their border with the Leyak Sector and douse the brushfire revolts within the populace that steadily destabilized the Sector over the following centuries, the Orpheus Sector was also the theatre of countless unexplainable or mundane tragedies. By the beginning of the 38th Millennium, the Orpheus Sector had effectively become a tinderbox, waiting for the inevitable spark to ignite it. This spark was not however as Segmentum authorities had feared an alien attack from the outside, but from within, when the renegade Von Mallas pronounced his war of faith. Originating in the Segmentum Pacificus, the teachings of ’The False Saint’ or ’The Transgressor’ as he came to be known in the years that followed fell upon fertile ground within the Orpheus Sector and in other locations of the Segmentum Tempestus. Entire solar-systems and planets declaredfor the Transgressor as did both the Hive World of Colkasth and the Agri-World of Epirus. The regiments and troops bound to survey the borders soon were called upon to prosecute a campaign againt what the Ecclesiarchy had dubbed the Von Mallas Black Crusade and war soon engulfs the Orpheus Sector. Resistance is fierce, especially on Epirus which is entirely devasted by the fightings and would take decades to recover to even a shadow of its former capacities. With the renegades finally subdued, Sector authoritues decide the foundation of the penitentiary world of Morros Lachrymal to harbour those that would rather toil in atonement for their sins than finish on the pyres of the Ecclesiarchy and Ordo Hereticus. While the immediate crisis had been adverted, the devastation of Epirus would prove to be an entirely seperate catastrophe. The loss of the Agri-world’s output bore heavily on the Sector’s trade and commerce routes, which had already been overstretched beforhand. The loss of an entire harvest cold perhaps heve been contained, put the reconstruction of Epirus would take decades, thus considerably weakening supply in the Capitoline Sub-Sector. Famine and pestilence soon became the Orpheus Sector’s worst ennemies as increasing Warp storms made importations from other Sectors more dangerous and expensive. This did not fail to breed considerable bitterness within the population, which gradually turned away from the Imperial Creed. Cults and sects greatly rose in power following these dark years, the most notable of them being the Celestarii. First encountered in 715.M38, the Celestarii were heavily persecuted by both the Adeptus Arbitres and the Ordo Hereticus put proved to be extremely difficult to root out, for the cult preyed on the desperation of the common folk. What made the Celestarii so dangerous was that they reounced the Emperor’s divinity, claiming that the galaxy’s true masters were in fact immortal beings that had fallen in an eon-spanning slumber but would eventually rise again and reward their followers with immortal life. To those that would oppose them, these sleeping gods would bring only death. The cult, which to several investigations endulged in cannibalistic rituals had taken some of the xenos-archeological artifacts that the Sector harboured in great quantities as their sacred relics, but seemingly rather worked to further the power and enrichment of its inner circle rather than openly challenge the Imperial Creed. The Celestarii are believed to have been considerably reinforced following the mysterious fate of the world of Tlaloc. Located at the very edge of the Orpheus Sector in the Drucillan Sub-sector where it borders the Leyak Sector, the world of Tlaloc has always been regarded as a dangerous place. Segmentum and Sector authorities for instance still remembered the lost colonization fleet that vanished during M.36, but left them unprepared for what occurred in 889.M38. Garbled distress signals emanating from Tlaloc were received by the authorities which promptly rerouted a squadron of battleships from Battlefleet Orpheus to investigate the matter. Before being abruptly cut off the distress signal had told of an impenentrable darkness and unspeakable massacres which clearly indicated that the matters at hand would not be taken lightly. Upon its arrival, the squadron found the world in ruins: Tlaloc had been turned in a charnel house. Landing parties reported blood-splattered streets and walls and still burning ruins. Neither bodies nor data could be recovered, the first one having been horribly mutilated and the second one broken beyond repair. What ever had brought Tlaloc to its knees had done so in a matter of a few hours, a highly unsettling thought. Tlaloc’s proximity to the lost Leyak Sector spawned many speculations, which warranted an official investigation led by Inquisitor Kussan of the Ordo Xenos. The Inquisitor interpretated the lack of remains as evidence of the actions of Eldar Kabalite Corsairs, more commonly referred to as Dark Eldar. Yet, other influential persons amongst the Orphean Admiralty and the Sector’s Ordos disagreed with Kussan, fearing the involvement of a very different force, perhaps the baleful ennemy that was also responsible for the loss of the Leyak Sector. As a precautionary measure, the Sector’s Lord Commander decided for the world to be quarantined, a quarantine that has been upheld until the beginning of the Orphean War. The Orpheus Serctor entered the 39th Millennium in the same state as it left the tumultuous 38th Millennium: on the verge of open conflict. While supplies no longer posed an issue and no famine had visited the Orpheus Sector for many centuries, the worlds of the Orpheus Sector - still heavily hindered by the tremenduous military tithes they were subjected to - were fractured, no spirit of kinship or loyalty existing between them. Sector governship had long passed from the extinguished line of House Orpheus to the stewardship of the House of Laan, distrusted by many for the House of Laan had a reputation for intrigue and excesses. To some extent, the Sector was kept together and functionning only by the tireless efforts of Battlefleet Orpheus, which successfully adverted a number of crisis that would have plunged the Sector into chaos had they not done so. For instance, in 160.M39, a powerful Ork-fleet, led by their gigantic flagship - the Mega-Kroozer entered the Orpheus Sector from the galactic South. Battlefleet Orpheus tirelessly engaged the enemy, fighting him in a nineteen-weeks running battle on the edges of the Deluvian Sub-sector. With the help of reinforcements from the ''Adeptus Astartes'', namely continents drawn from the Revilers and Red Seraphs Chapters, the major threath was eliminated. Yet some of the Orks managed to escape destruction and found shelter in the great debris-fields on the edge of the Sub-sector, raiding and harassing Imperial worlds and convoys, yet even as the Orks proved an evergrowing thorn in the side of the Sector’s trade relationships, the planets lacked the common will to unite and expuge this calamity for good. The Orphean War of Faith The Sector Resurgent Portents of Doom Orpheus Sector Timeline * The Voyages of Orpheus (ca.570-750.M30) - As part of the Emperor’s Great Crusade, the Rogue Trader Lady Arica Orpheus mounts several far-ranging expeditions into what would eventually become the Orpheus Sector. With the foundation of the Imperial outpost on Amarah, the Imperium officially claims the Dark Marches Region. Several military campaigns follow to exterminate identified xenos threats, but the Sector is still not entirely pacified when the Horus Heresy plunges the Imperium into galactic civil war. * The Sundering of the Imperium (005.M31-020.M30) - Following the Great Betrayal and the descent of the Age of Darkness upon the domains of the Imperium of Mankind, both fractions entirely retire from the region, leaving its colonists to fight for themselves. Although no great battles are fought in the Orpheus Sector, the population suffers from the resurgent xenos and Dark Eldar raids. * The Scourge of Dynat Crowbane (pre 100.M31) - Driven outwards by the resurgent armies of the Emperor of Mankind after the Battle of Terra, an Alpha Legion warlord known as Dynat Mal, the main architect behind the Raven Guard’s shaming defeat at the Battle of Lyx seeks shelter in the Dark Marches. Having raided and destroyed the only semblant of organised resistant in the region, the Imperial outpost on Amarah, Dynat Crowbane and his warband reign over the Sector, "The Shadowed Ones" - as they’ve come to name themselves - repelling several punitive expeditions set to destroy them. * Vengeance Denied (ca.170.M32) - A punitive taskforce of the Raven Guard Chapter under Captain Kallengier is despatched to seek and destroy "The Shadowed Ones" and their master but only discover the ruins of Crowbane’s ship, the Occam’s Razor, buried in thousand of tons of bones and corpses. * The Child of the Beast (552.M32) - As part of a great migration of Orks that plague the entire Imperium, an Ork-crewed Space Hulk known as "Da Iron Worm" vanishes in the Dark Marches region after having laid waste to several powerful worlds in the Uhulis-Sector. * The Rising Storm (610.M36) - Following the tumultuous time of the Age of Apostasy and the death of Goge Vandire, the Segmentum Tempestus knows a resurgence in power and fortune. While the tremendous Warp Storms that had given the Segmentum it’s name now abated, Segmentum authorities launched a series of campaigns and Crusades designed to expunge lingering threats and fortify the Imperium’s borders. This was only possible through the relative calm that reigned within the Segmentum whereas other domains of the Imperium such as the Segmentum Solar or the Segmentum Obscurus had been weakened by other conflicts. The eye of the High Lords soon came to rest on the wayward Orpheus Sector and the entire Dark Marches Region and were thus were marked for conquest, the dangers of the past seemingly forgotten. * The Dark Marches Crusade (610-759.M36) - The Dark Marches Crusade is but one of the campaigns launched during the Rising Storm and that would lead to the inception of the Orpheus Sector. After having served as advance port for the crusade for nearly thirty years, the world of Amarah is chosen as the Sector’s new capital. * The Lost Fleet (817.M36) - A colonization fleet carrying some sixteen million colonists bound for the verdant fen-covered world of Tlaloc mysteriously vanishes, never to be seen again. * The Colonisation of Tlaloc (ca.847.M36) - A second colonisation fleet -much smaller than the one that vanished before - successfully reaches Tlaloc and settle on the world. * The Orpheus Millenial (759.M37) - To celebrate the 1’000th anniversary of its creation, the entire Orpheus Sector rejoices. The deathly remains of its esteemed founder and first Governor, Hal Orpheus is born in grand ceremony throughout the entire sector, his former flagship the Apocalypse-class Battleship Arica Dominus conducting a great tour of the region. * The Silence of Leyak (976.M37) - The neighbouring Leyak-Sector abruptly ceases all communication with the wider Imperium, causing the loss of billions of lives. An Ordo Xenos taskforce ventured into the now silent Sector and successfully returned but did not disclose what they had witnessed there. Soon afterwards, the Segmentum Conclave of the Ordo Xenos drastically increased the military tithes of every worlds of the Orpheus Sector, raising new regiments for the Imperial Army and Planetary Defence Forces, and requiring of those more industrialized worlds to heavily reinforce their orbital defences. In parallel, Battlefleet Orpheus is to be considerably reinforced, while all worlds of the Veiled Region are declared forbidden under pain of death. As a further precautionary measure, several of the most outlying worlds such as Altun are also declared Perdita. * The Black Crusade of Von Mallas (unknown date.M38) - The heavy tithes resting on the Orpheus Sector had bred considerable discontent amongst the population, sometimes erupting into violent revolts and full-sclae rebellions that were brutally reprimanded by the Adeptus Arbites and the local authorities. These tensions led to several purges against the civilian population which prove unsuccesstul to stop the rise of cultic activity. Preying on this spirit of discontent, demagogues and doomsayers have a great influence within the populace. Originating form the Segmentum Pacificus, the Black Crusade of the Apostate Cardinal Von Mallas, more commonly known as "The False Saint" or "The Transgressor", soon spills over into the Orpheus Sector and its neighbours. The worlds of Epirus and Colkasth fully embrace the heretic’s creed and battle is joined. Those regiments raised in the wake of the Silence of Leyak soon need to fight the Transgressor’s expanding splinter-empire. Although the secessionnists worlds are ultimately defeated, the Agri-World of Epirus is totally devasted, the loss of its output causing food-shortages and famines across a great deal of the Orpheus Sector, breeding further discontent as time after time worlds are ravaged by pestilence. The penitentiary world of Morros Lachrymal is founded to process those heretics that which to repent for their crimes. * The Rise of the Cult Celestarii (715.M38) - Born of the despair and bitterness caused by the recurring famines since the devastation of Epirus, a previously unknown cult quickly rises in power, particularly amongst the wealthy and nobles of the Orpheus Sector. Haven taken the name of the Celestarii, the cult has taken the widespread xeno-archelogical remains and foundings as sacred relics and places, spreading the belief that the Imperial Creed is but a lie and that the true gods of the galaxy, the Celesatrii would one day awaken from their eternal slumber and grant those that follow them eternal life, while bring bloddy death to those that would oppose them. Little is known of their practices, although the Cult is heavily persecuted by the Adeptus Arbites as well as the Ordo Hereticus. Investigations seems to show that the Cult in fact acts more as a secret society, furthering the enrichment and power of their inner circle rather than trying to topple Imperial rule alltogether. Several clues indicate that the Celestarii carry out rituals of cannibalistic nature. * The Death of Tlaloc (889.M38) - In 889.M38 a patrol of Battlefleet Orpheus received garbled distress signals form the Agri-World of Tlaloc, at the very edge of the Drucillan Sub-sector. Upon their arrival they find the world in ruins, its decimated and every single recording device broken. The landing parties described that the townships and cities had been turned into an abattoir, every corpse seemingly ripped apart, cut into ribbons or having been flayed; yet despite their heavy mutilations, it was clear that there were not enough corpses to account for the entirety of Tlaloc’s population. As usual in this case, the Inquisition led an official investigations on the matter, which discovered that the ruin visited upon the world had been done in a matters of hours. Inquisitor Kussan of the Ordo Xenos came to the conclusion that the mutilations and savagery of it were tell-tale signs of Dark Eldar raiders or Eldar Kabalite Corsairs. Other Inquisitors and several officers of the Orphean Admiralty however did not share this hypothesis and motioned for the world to be quarantined, a quarantine that was still in effect at the time of the Orphean War. * The Battle of the Gorgon Deep (160.M39) - With the help of the Revilers and the Red Seraphs Chapters of the Adeptus Astartes, Battlefleet Orpheus succeeded in stopping the rampage of a major Ork incursion at the Sector’s borders. Boarded by Terminator-squads that spearheaded tha assault on the enemy flagship, the Mega-Kroozer, the Ork are vanquished in a nineteen-week long space battle. However many of the smaller Ork ships scattered and found refuge in the asteroid belts, debris fields and gravitic vortexes that surround the Deluvian Sub-sector, soon to prove an almost constant thorn in the Sector’s side. Piratic and raider activity soon increased, putting further strain on Battlefleet Orpheus and the Sector’s shipping lines. * The Time of Revolt (860-903.M39) - Following a millenium of tensions and both minor and major crisis, the Orpheus is put under new strain by Segentum authorities when new troops are to be alloted the seemingly endless wars in the neighbouring Haxan Sector, where the Imperium was entagled on two fronts against the Eldar Slaughtervane Kabal and the Apostate Heptad. This ultimately proved too much bear and the long-running tensions and rivalries between planets and rouling houses finally erupt first in bloody vendettas and assassination campaigns and then into open conflict. Sector-wide civil war is reached when the honour-clans of the Drucillian Cluster overthrow local opposition and declare their formal secession from the Orpheus Sector. Drucilla Majoris quickly becomes a haven for all sort of criminals and renegades but most importantly it became a rallying point around which other renegade fractions could rally. The world of Apollyon and Selakhar fell to the sway of the Ruinous Powers while on Amraphel the xenos mercinaries commissionned by Amraphel’s parliament to attack its neighbours prove to be a splinter-web of the baleful Khrave which prey upon the worlds elite. The infestation is discovered and expunged by an Adeptus Ministorum-led civil uprising. * The Orphean War of Faith (903-922.M39) - With several worlds firmly on the grip of the vile adorators of Chaos and the Orpheus Sector on the brink of tearing itself apart, an unexpected arrival led to the greatest military campaign since the Dark Marches Crusade. Guided by visions of the Holy Emperor Himself, Arch-Confessor Marduk of Helvamon had declared a war of faith to save the Orpheus Sector. His ramshackle fleet bore thousands of Imperial zealots, Guardsmen and militiamen as well pilgrims, but more importantly in the Arch-Confessor the fractitious planetary governors and rulers found a figure behind which to rally. Soon, the Imperials launched a powerful counter-attack, it fervor makig even the Daemons of Chaos shirk back. As the influence and presence of several warbands of Chaos Space Marines was confirmed, amongst which could be counted members of the Alpha Legion, the Night Lords and the Death Mongers, the Arch-Confessor called for help and his Crusade was soon reinforced by the entirety of the then space-faring Angels Revenant Chapter as well as the Adepta Sororitas in form of detachments from the Order of the Valorous Heart and the Order of the Black Sepulchre. Lastly, upon learning that daemons had been set lose, the Ordo Malleus also despatched a strike-force of its most fearful warriors, the legendary Grey Knights. With this mighty host, the Imperial reconquer their Sector in a gruesome twenty year long campaign that would see a full fifth of the Sector’s population die. * The Bane of Saint Marduk (921.M39) - Regarded as the last great battle of the Orphean War of Faith, the events of the Bane of Saint Marduk are shrouded in mystery although later events seem to confirm the major role of the Maynark Dynasty in it. By 921.M39, the victorious forces of the Imperium had gathered to lay siege to the last stronghold in the hands of the Archenemy: the former Hive World of Colkasth that had been turned into a hellish fortress by the Warpsmith of the Death Mongers, fusing the bones and souls of the world’s inhabitants into grotesque defensive structures or leaving them as mindless cannon-fodder. Daemons had been called from the Warp to further reinforce the defenders as the Imperial host around Arch-Confessor approached. While the first stage of the Imperial counter-invasion met with some measure of success, the contact with Marduk’s army was soon lost, the last communications raising the alarm and calling for assistance. The first ship to reach the system, an Adeptus Astartes Strike Cruiser belonging to the Angels Revenant, which was met by two smaller yet extremely powerful ships of unknown provenance which succeeded to damage the Intercessor. The Space Marines however retaliated and destroyed one of their foes, upon which the second one disengaged, but the damage had been done: its propulsion systems nearly entirely destroyed, the Intercessor could only limp system-inwards and witness a terrific space batte occurring around Colkasth, presumably led against the same unknown enemies they had just driven off. Upon its arrival, the Intercessor found only scores of debris field and a ravaged world in the grip of a nuclear winter, yet the radiations did not match any form of weaponry known to man. Only few survivors could be saved and it soon appeared that Arch-Confessor Marduk himself had been slain. None the wiser, the Angels Revenant departed the system after having conducted emergency repairs. As the Arch-Confessor was soon beatified by the Ecclesiarchy, the world soon became known as Saint Marduk’s Bane and recolonized after ritual purification to make sure that none of the foul taint of Chaos still lingered there. This marked the birth of the mysterious menace known as ’The Sleepers of Orpheus’, a tale that would however soon be forgotten. * Establishment of Libertha (circa 010.M40) - Following the death of Saint Marduk and the eradication of the last Chaos-aligned forces within the Sector, the Orphean War of Faith is deemed a great success. To comemorate the Saint’s death, the colony world of Libertha, which the Saint had grow fond of, is converted into a Shrine World to harbour the war’s honoured dead. The Space Marines Chapter of the Angels Revenant, until now a crusading Chapter, is given custody over Libertha, which consideraby strengthens the Sector’s defences. * The Death of Badrok (319.M40) - Unifying the descendants of the great Ork incursions of the 39th Millennium, Evil Sunz warboss Badrok Gutgouga launches a Waaagh! from the Shattered Deeps-Region against the Orpheus Sector. Confronted by the Orpheus Sector defence forces and reinforced by regiments of the Imperial Guard, most notoriously armoured regiments from Koenig, the Orks are brought to battle. After seven months of gruelling battles, the Orks are finally encircled and defeated. Warboss Gutgouga is slain and his mortal remains are famously hanged from the spire of the Red Cathedral of Amraphel, marking the beginning of festivities across the entire Deluvian Sub-sector. * The Great Severan War (580-591.M40) - As the border regions of the Segmentum Tempestus and the Ultima Segmentum are ravaged by this conflict of epic proportions, the Orpheus Sector contributes over thirty-nine million of men and women to the Emperor’s armies. To meet these requirements, the penitaries of Morros Lachrymal are converted from mining facilities to the raising and training of Penal Legions. Few of these regiments ever returned to the Orpheus Sector but their sacrifice is comemorated on Libertha by the raising of the great Basilica Severan. * The Decapolis Conspiracy is Uncovered (619.M40) - Located to the galactic West of the Orpheus Sector, where it borders the Eurydice-Sector, the Hive World of Decapolis has grown powerful and rich, mostly through the trade with the neighbouring Sector and the Mechanicum Domain of Myre. Decapolis wealth, population and economic output was such that it eclipsed even Amarah itself, the ancestral seat of power and government of the Orpheus Sector. However, the ruling houses of Amarah jealously tried to remain in control, imposing ever-increasing tithes on Decapolis’ merchant class in a vain effort to hinder its growth. Eventually, these tithes became so oppressing that Decapolis’ ruling council, the Decarchs, both mercantile and military governors decided to fight back. The Decarchs hatched a series of conspiracies and plans which revolved around the covert funding and arming of political dissidents on Amarah, heretical groups such as the Cult Celastarii and even nacro-smuggling and counterband rings. As several officials were being eliminated in a targeted assassination campaign, these deaths prompted an Ordo Hereticus-led investigation. Upon interrogating captured Celastarii-culltists, the full extent of the conspiracy is uncovered when the heavy weapons crates in their possession can be traced back to manufactura on Decapolis. For the following nine years, the Inquisition heavily purges Decapolis, conducting a series of systematic purges of Decapolis ruling elite and sentencing them to death after extensive show trials. The harshness of these purges utlimately prevent outright civil war, but the even heavier tithes imposed by a now paranoid Amarah upon the Hive World leads to vast civil resentment. The relation of trust between the worlds of the Orpheus Sector is shattered and on Decapolis in particuliar the population’s fealty is more enforced than earned. * The Storm Tide (672-990.M41) - As many other of the Emperor’s domain within the Segmentum Tempestus, the Orpheus Sector is increasingly plagued by a number of sudden, unpredictable, warp-related torments such as Aetheric diruptions and Warp squalls which make warp-travel increasingly dangerous, even amongst estalished and well-travelled warp-routes.The number of vessels lost in the Warp steadily rises and cultic activities with it. Many latent and established psykers are plagued by horrifiying dreams and visions, featuring dead cities and the recurring image of a rising darkness, led by pale figure streading the dust of silent worlds and endless labyrinths. Only by the thorough efforts of both the Ordo Hereticus and Ordo Malleus, which battles ever more frequent incursions of psyker-daemons, is wider knowledge of these bleak portents of doom kept from the overall population. With the planets of the Orpheus Sector growing ever more isolated, the unity and security of the Sector is only maintained by the tireless vigilance of the Angels Revenant and Battlefleet Orpheus, which constantly patrol the vicinity of the Hesod Nebula to hold off Eldar Corsairs that seek to prey on the more isolated worlds. Topography of the Orpheus Sector Notable Celestial Phenomena * Hesod Nebula - The Hesod Nebula encompasses large parts of the Orpheus Sector northern approaches. It has long served as a safe haven for Dark Eldar corsairs and pirates which Battlefleet Orpheus had thus far failed to eliminate. This would however change with the beginning of the Orphean War as the raiders either perished at the hands of the Necrons themselves or were forced out of hiding onto the guns of the Imperial Navy and the Minotaurs Chapter of the Adeptus Astartes. * Shattered Deeps - Located at the very South of the Orpheus Sector, the Shattered Deeps form a Warp/real-space anomaly akin to the famous Maelstrom or the Eye of Terror although of much smaller magnitude. * Veiled Region - Located to the galactic South-West of the capital, the Veiled Region marks the Segmentum Tempestus outer border, a final obstacle before the immensity of the Outer Darkness. The region carries its name well as dense nebulas, great debris fields and turbulent gravitic forces make navigation utterly impossible and even "veil" the light of the few existing stars left that are only orbited by Dead Worlds. It would seem however that at least a portion of the Necron invader indeed came from the Outer Darkness and thus passed through this region of space to reach the Orpheus Sector. How such a feat was possible remains entirely unknown. Notable Sub-sectors The size of the Orpheus Sector is such that to ease its ponderous administration, the sector was divided into three primary sub-sectors and several independent administrative regions. * Capitoline Sub-sector - As its name indicates the Capitoline Sub-sector is the most important division of the entire Sector, englobing both the Sector Capital of Amarah and the populous worlds of the Arcantis Cluster. These heavily industrialized and populated worlds heavily rely on the imports from the semi-autonomous domain of the Barren Stars and the Agri-world of Hydrogast that lies therein to survive. * Deluvian Sub-Sector - The Deluvian Sub-sector lies to the galactic South-East of the Capitoline Sub-Sector and is perhaps the second most important region of the Orpheus Sector. Following the Orphean War, the Deluvian Sub-Sector has suffered the less and still defies the invaders. * Drucillan Sub-Sector - The worlds of the Drucillan Sub-Sector were by far the least advanced of the Orpheus Sector, yet suffered perhaps the worst during the eons as the outlying worlds fell one after the other to the baleful presence of Xenos species, adorators of the Ruinuous Powers or others perils. Being located to the galactic South-South-West of Amarah where the Orpheus Sector touches the lost Leyak Sector, the Drucillan Sub-Sector was the first to fall before Necrons of the Maynark Dynasty and is considered utterly lost by the Imperium’s tacticians. Notable Exclusion Zones Subjected to many strange Warp phenomena, the Orpheus Sector counts many worlds upon which the Inquisition has placed a ban and where no citizen of the Imperium should dwell. The true reasons for this ban are however most often kept secret. Most tellingly, those prohibited worlds are all located on the exterior of the Sector, close to the Segmentum’s borders with the Outer Darkness. In this there is only one notable exception, the Chemarium Exclusion Zone. Both words of the Chemarium-system had simultaneously entered a state of open revolt against the Imperial rule and had been cordoned off in awaiting of sufficient reinforcement to pacify these worlds which seemed to have fallen to the sway of the Powers of Chaos. Those reinforcement were hastily redeployed at the outset of the Orphean War. * Altun World * Carocol World * Chemarium Worlds - Located in the Deluvian Sub-Sector, Chemarium I and II were both heavily industrialized worlds whose output principally went to Amarah itself, the Hive Cities of Decapolis and the Forge World of Myre. On both worlds the civilian population had risen against the rule of the Divine Emperor, warranting a blockade of the entire system which became known as the Chemarium Exclusion Zone. Although the baleful influence of the Ruinous Powers has been confirmed it is unknown how the taint had spread so long unnoticed. * Cutlar World * Nightshard '''- Located at the very edge of the Veiled Region, the world of Nightshard is a scientific enigma and has therefor been declared Prohibita by the Sector’s Conclave of Ordos. Nightshard’s celestial mass is highly anomalous for a planet this size. * '''Tlaloc Agri-World - '''Tlaloc is an ill-fated Agri-World established on the very southern borders of the Orpheus Sector, where it touches the now lost Leyak Sector. When the first colonization fleet bound for Tlaloc mysteriously vanished, nobody truly suspected the horrible fate that would be visited on this world in the last decades of the 800s of M.38. Referred to as "the Death of Tlaloc" in several open records, the world’s population was decimated, not a single intact corpse to be found amongst the ruins of the planet and the broken remains of every single recording device on the planet. Official investigations led by Inquisitor Kussan of the Ordo Xenos put the blame on Eldar Corsairs, but in the wake of the Orphean War it woud seem that far older, darker forces were at work on Tlaloc. Nevertheless, since 889.M38 and these mysterious events, Tlaloc has remained in permanent quarantine. * '''Utmal World Principal Worlds of the Orpheus-Sector Sources * Imperial Armour Volume Twelve : the Fall of Orpheus, pp.12 Category:O Category:Galaxy Category:Imperium Category:Sector